movie reviews…mostly

Justice League: Secret Origins (2001)

More cartoons! After professing my fondness for all things Super Friends, and whinging like an old coot about the state of the modern superhero, alert reader Mike P. from Bethesda steered me in the direction of a series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2001 – 2004 called Justice League (later changed to Justice League Unlimited). It is essentially the Super Friends all growed-up, and it is awesome.

Justice League is another in a series of DC Comics related cartoons by a guy called Bruce Timm, who also made the Emmy Award winning Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series – which I now totally can’t wait to watch. Timm clearly has deep affection and understanding of these characters and also his audience. While I get the feeling that the writers of the Super Friends were bitter old farts concocting hilarious shenanigans for Gleek the space monkey, Timm and his cohorts were really trying to tell good stories, create unique characters, and send love letters to fanboys.

“Secret Origins” originally aired as a 90 minute pilot movie, and was later broken into a three-part episode. (Most of the Justice League episodes were two-parters, utilizing the time-honored tradition of the comic book cliffhanger). It tells the story of how the Justice League team formed.

Being a complete geek – verging on dork – I happen to know that the REAL Justice League formed back in issue #28 of The Brave and the Bold in 1960. And they fought a giant starfish.

Luckily, Timm created a slightly more interesting origin story for our heroes by stealing an idea from H.G. Wells. The real secret of “Secret Origins” is that it’s essentially the story of “War of the Worlds,” but with Superman. Nothing wrong with that.

Astronauts exploring Mars unwittingly free a long-dormant (but not Martian) alien species that set their sights on earth for conquering and general mayhem. Superman is duped into dismantling the world’s weapons of mass destruction – rendering the planet defenseless – and the shape-shifting creatures arrive in their jellyfish walkers to wreak havoc.

J’onn J’onzz (aka The Martian Manhunter) is the last Martian in the universe because the H.G. Wells guys decimated Mars some years ago. J’onn comes to earth and psychically recruits the earth’s mightiest heroes to band together in a desperate struggle to save earth. So along comes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and Hawk Girl to crack open a can of whup-ass.

Excellent animation (for television) and voice acting elevate this series above most. It really is the Super Friends you always wanted. Even when I was seven years old, wearing my ratty old footy pajamas and shoveling Boo Berry into my mouth, watching the Wonder Twins (yet again) transform into a chimp and ice bucket, I quietly admitted it was pretty lame.

Cartoons as a medium lend themselves so well to superhero stories, it’s just fantastic to see somebody do it right. This cartoon has that rare and magical ability to appeal to adults (or at least adult fanboys) and kids. See, there is a way to tell good superhero stories without making them brooding, alcoholic psychopaths. Just sayin’.

The only shocking omission from The Justice League is my beloved Aquaman. Where the hell is Aquaman? Don’t get me wrong, I’m digging Hawk Girl. She has a mace, and it’s always good to bring in another flier. But to cut Aquaman from the roster? Unforgivable. What if they need the help of a narwhal?